“Blockchain” is one of two “B” words that are all the rage lately — the other being “Bitcoin.” While Bitcoin is grabbing most of the headlines, many people are mistakenly lumping “cryptocurrency” into the same category as “Blockchain.” True, the two are certainly related, but they’re not one in the same. Blockchain is defined as a digitized, decentralized ledger that…

SoftBank needs to keep finding startups to park its money, and it looks like autonomous delivery startup Nuro is the latest spot. Mountain View-based Nuro announced this morning that it has raised $940 million in financing from the SoftBank Vision Fund. The funding comes just more than a year after it raised $92 million in…

Apple has just bought up the talent it needs to make talking toys a part of Siri, HomePod, and its voice strategy. Apple has acquired PullString, also known as ToyTalk, according to Axios’ Dan Primack and Ina Fried. TechCrunch has received confirmation of the acquistion from sources with knowledge of the deal. The startup makes voice…

If you find passwords annoying, you might not like two-factor authentication much. But security experts say it’s one of the best ways to protect your online accounts. Simply put, two-factor authentication adds a second step in your usual log-in process. Once you enter your username and password, you’ll be prompted to enter a code sent…

So you want to browse the web securely and privately? Here’s a hard truth: it’s almost impossible. It’s not just your internet provider that knows which sites you visit, it’s also the government — and other governments! And when it’s not them, it’s social media sites, ad networks or apps tracking you across the web…

Encryption is an important part of the whole securing-your-data package, but it’s easy to underestimate the amount of complexity it adds to any service or device. One part of that is the amount of processing encryption takes — an amount that could be impractical on small or low-end devices. Google wants to change that with…

Most app developers aim to have an engaged user base who find their app valuable and return to it on a regular basis. Also, anyone who’s ever bothered to hit the ‘install’ button hopes that the app delivers on it’s promise to fulfill a need, or solve a problem! Blindly optimizing engagement metrics for their…

The e-commerce giant is field testing a new machine, called Amazon Scout, for handling some packages. The news: Amazon says it’s launching a trial of its robot, which looks like a small blue cooler on wheels, in an unspecified neighborhood in the state of Washington’s Snohomish County. The company will start with six Scouts that…

The news: AlphaStar, the company’s latest learning algorithm, defeated professional Starcraft II players for the first time, scoring 10 wins and one loss against the pros, called TLO and MaNa. The popular real-time strategy game involves players competing as one of three races to building structures and engaging in combat across a sprawling battlefield. Practice,…